Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.

I had perfect credit. I was injured in an auto accident and had to have knee surgery. I decided to use my credit card to pay my med bills. Unfortunately my income decreased and I could no longer pay the $150 monthly payment. I contacted the company to work out a payment plan. They said no. Subsequently, I could not pay the payment. I continued to contact them through a couple of years to see if we could work something out. The answer was always no.

Eventually I was contacted by Russell Law Firm on behalf of Premium Asset Recovery Corp. They convinced me that they would reduce the bill to $5,000 if I would agree to a settlement. I agreed. We agreed and I paid them $25.00 a month. A little more than one year later, I called the Lawyers for PARC and informed them that I would be refinancing my home to get acquire the money to pay them in full. I initially I paid my Sears credit card off first, $4,700. Immediately after that, my truck broke down and I had to buy another vehicle. I purchased a used Honda. I called Russell Law Firm to inform them that I could not pay the settlement in full because I had to use the money to purchase a vehicle. That same month I received my payment back, undeliverable. Of course I verified the address, it had not changed. I sent the payment off again to the same address I had been mailing the payment to for well over a year. Again I received the payment back in the mail, undeliverable. I called Russell to inquire if the address had changed. They spoke to me very rough and nasty. They also informed me that they hadn't received the payment, and that the address had not changed.

One month later I received a summons from the court that I must appear in court bor breach of contract. PARC called in, they was present in court on the phone. They tried to convince the judge that I had not been making the payments. I had the proof of all current payments accept the last one. I brought the actuall envelop with the proof of the same address and the date stamp. The judge told me that the envelop was proof that they did not receive my payment that month. That was a violation of our agreement. He stated I should have been mailing the payment by registered mail to prove their receipt of my payments. He ruled agaisnt me. He assigned a judgement against me for more than twice what I owed.

Even though PARC had won a judgement against me, I continued to encourage them to set aside the judgement and return to the original agreement. They would not. Approximately 2 or 3 years after that, Russell contacted me and stated they would accept $6,000 now. I informed them that I had recently received a Citi Bank check in the mail for $5,000. All I had was $5,745. I informed Russell that I had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and I that in one week, I was going to undergo radiation treatment and I was not sure how long I would be out of work. I informed them that I didnt' have $6,000, but I was willing to give them the $5,000. They refused. Approximately a few weeks later, I received correspondence from Asset Acceptance stating that they had purchased my debt, would I like to settle for $10,000 then $8,000. Of course I didn't have the money.

I paid Asset monthly payments, and sent the payments in the provided evelop that they sent me. A few months later, they started calling me at home, at work, speaking nasty things to me, demanding payment, and stating that they would garnish my salary. I informed them that I was paying them and sending the payment in the evelop they had provided. A week or so later, my paycheck was garnished by Asset. They garnished my paycheck on 2 occasions. It took weeks for them to realize I had been paying and they had made a tracking mistake. It also took several weeks after that to get my money back.

I have tried on several occasions to resolve this issue with Asset Acceptance but they continue to demand $13,000 to $8,000 to settle this debt. I do not have the money!!!

Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.